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DO YOU THINK THERE SHOULD BE A STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES? I was just reading ET's interesting post and it reminded me of how some crimes have a statute of limitations and other crimes don't. I don't agree with it in the case of violent crimes. Bill Cosby comes to mind. Out of all his accusers, only 1 was allowed to bring charges due to the statute of limitations. How fair is that? I personally don't agree with it. Yes it is hard to remember details and it does make it more difficult to prove a case because humans can't retain everything, however, I think every victim deserves their day in court. What do you think? I am equally disgusted by double jeopardy. Nobody can be tried for the same crime twice. That means someone like O. J. Simpson can come out and admit he killed Nicole and Ron and not be held accountable. How does that make sense? The criminal system needs some serious revisions in my opinion. What do you think? Elaine Shuel |
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Bump.  Elaine Shuel
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I remember the Rodney King case. The cops were changed and acquitted at the first trial. Rioting resulted. They were tried AGAIN with the charge of violating Rodney King's civil rights. I have to question why they were not charged for that at that the first time. That appears to be double jeopardy. Double Jeopardy protects the accused from being tried over and over again by a prosecutor is determined to win regardless of guilt or innocent. The prosecutor has to prove guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. All the defense has to do is establish a shadow of a doubt. Abracadabra 
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7/19/2017 4:50 am |
In Canada criminal charges are laid by the police and the victim is just a witness and only if necessary. In civil cases there has to be statutes of limitations for several reasons. If someone sued you for something they claim happened years ago, it would be too difficult to remember details and defend yourself not even knowing you might be sued sometime in the future, while the plaintiff had years to prepare a case against you. The trial of O.J. is a good example of why I have no faith in the jury system. How many innocent people are sitting in jail all because of the way they looked, the clothes they wore in the courtroom, their voice, their likeability and their lawyer's likeability?
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I remember the Rodney King case. The cops were changed and acquitted at the first trial. Rioting resulted. They were tried AGAIN with the charge of violating Rodney King's civil rights. I have to question why they were not charged for that at that the first time. That appears to be double jeopardy. Double Jeopardy protects the accused from being tried over and over again by a prosecutor is determined to win regardless of guilt or innocent. The prosecutor has to prove guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. All the defense has to do is establish a shadow of a doubt. Elaine Shuel
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In Canada criminal charges are laid by the police and the victim is just a witness and only if necessary. In civil cases there has to be statutes of limitations for several reasons. If someone sued you for something they claim happened years ago, it would be too difficult to remember details and defend yourself not even knowing you might be sued sometime in the future, while the plaintiff had years to prepare a case against you. The trial of O.J. is a good example of why I have no faith in the jury system. How many innocent people are sitting in jail all because of the way they looked, the clothes they wore in the courtroom, their voice, their likeability and their lawyer's likeability? I definitely agree with you about O. J. Simpson's murder trial and how a jury trial isn't the best.Elaine Shuel
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I'm Canadian so we don't pardon anyone.  I don't think forgiveness has anything to do with the statute of limitations. If someone commits a violent crime especially premeditated, they need to be held accountable. Thanks for your response, Leaf. Elaine Shuel
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Sadly how good the lawyer is always counts. I know someone who has a friend whose child was murdered. The guilty party got away with it due to a technicality his lawyer found. That is a true crime that the criminal system allows that to happen. The mother spent the rest of her life with no peace whatsoever. Elaine Shuel
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Yes the sentence he received was pathetic. The legal system in the USA and Canada isn't just. I remember taking business law for my degree and the first thing the teacher told us was that laws are not fair. I was shocked she said that but she was definitely correct. Thanks ET. Elaine Shuel
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Just think about all the s*xual assault cases which are now exempt from prosecution because of the statue of limitations. You mention the case of Dennis Hastert but failed to mention the plethora of charges leveled against Bill Clinton - all of which were stonewalled by the justice system because of the political clout of the Clintons. Bill Clinton deserves to be in prison just as much as Hastert. Do any of these sound familiar? Eileen Wellstone, 19-year-old English woman who said Clinton se*ually assaulted her after she met him at a pub near the Oxford where the future President was a student in 1969. A retired State Department employee confirmed that he spoke with the family of the girl and filed a report with his superiors. Clinton admitted having sex with the girl, but claimed it was consensual. The victim's family declined to pursue the case; In 1972, a 22-year-old woman told campus police at Yale University that she was se*ually assaulted by Clinton, a law student at the college. No charges were filed, but retired campus policemen contacted by Capitol Hill Blue confirmed the incident. The woman, tracked down by Capitol Hill Blue, confirmed the incident, but declined to discuss it further and would not give permission to use her name; In 1974, a female student at the University of Arkansas complained that then-law school instructor Bill Clinton tried to prevent her from leaving his office during a conference. She said he groped her and forced his hand inside her blouse. She complained to her faculty advisor who confronted Clinton, but Clinton claimed the student ''came on'' to him. The student left the school shortly after the incident. Reached at her home in Texas, the former student confirmed the incident, but declined to go on the record with her account. Several former students at the University have confirmed the incident in confidential interviews and said there were other reports of Clinton attempting to force himself on female students; Juanjita Broaddrick, a volunteer in Clinton's gubernatorial campaign, said he ra*ed her in 1978. Mrs. Broaddrick suffered a bruised and torn lip, which she said she suffered when Clinton bit her during the ra*e; From 1978-1980, during Clinton's first term as governor of Arkansas, state troopers assigned to protect the governor were aware of at least seven complaints from women who said Clinton forced, or attempted to force, himself on them se*ually. One retired state trooper said in an interview that the common joke among those assigned to protect Clinton was "who's next?". One former state trooper said other troopers would often escort women to the governor's hotel room after political events, often more than one an evening; Carolyn Moffet, a legal secretary in Little Rock in 1979, said she met then-governor Clinton at a political fundraiser and shortly thereafter received an invitation to meet the governor in his hotel room. "I was escorted there by a state trooper. When I went in, he was sitting on a couch, wearing only an undershirt. He pointed at his pe*is and told me to suck it. I told him I didn't even do that for my boyfriend and he got mad, grabbed my head and shoved it into his lap. I pulled away from him and ran out of the room." Elizabeth Ward, the Miss Arkansas who won the Miss America crown in 1982, told friends she was forced by Clinton to have s*x with him shortly after she won her state crown. Ward, who is now married with the last name of Gracen (from her first marriage), told an interviewer she did have s*x with Clinton but said it was consensual. Close friends of Ward, however, say she still maintains privately that Clinton forced himself on her. Paula Corbin, an Arkansas state worker, filed a se*ual harassment case against Clinton after an encounter in a Little Rock hotel room where the then-governor exposed himself and demanded oral s*x. Clinton settled the case with Jones recently with an $850,000 cash payment. Sandra Allen James, a former Washington, DC, political fundraiser says Presidential candidate-to-be Clinton invited her to his hotel room during a political trip to the nation's capital in 1991, pinned her against the wall and stuck his hand up her dress. She says she screamed loud enough for the Arkansas State Trooper stationed outside the hotel suite to bang on the door and ask if everything was all right, at which point Clinton released her and she fled the room. When she reported the incident to her boss, he advised her to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to keep working. Miss James has since married and left Washington. The former Miss James said she later learned that other women suffered the same fate at Clinton's hands when he was in Washington during his Presidential run. Christy Zercher, a flight attendant on Clinton's leased campaign plane in 1992, says Presidential candidate Clinton exposed himself to her, grabbed her breasts and made explicit remarks about oral s*x. A video shot on board the plane by ABC News shows an obviously inebriated Clinton with his hand between another young flight attendant's legs. Zercher said later in an interview that White House attorney Bruce Lindsey tried to pressure her into not going public about the assault. Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer, reported that Clinton grabbed her, fondled her breast and pressed her hand against his genitals during an Oval Office meeting in November, 1993. Willey, who told her story in a 60 Minutes interview, became a target of a White House-directed smear campaign after she went public. But hey, lets talk about Hastert. Fossil Elaine Shuel
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OMG, I knew Bill Clinton is a womanizer, as does everyone else. I had no idea he was guilty of the crimes you just discussed. Thanks for your comment. Fossil.
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The problem with 11th hour accusations is that they are very difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. It may be a lost cost to try and prosecute a crime committed past the statute of limitations. Both Trump and Clinton faced 11th hour accusations. It didn't stop either of them from being President. Abracadabra
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Fossil has listed instances where Bill Clinton was accused of these crimes, not that he was found guilty of them...... Elaine Shuel
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Good point but like with Bill Cosby, where there is smoke, there is usually fire. Abracadabra
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In the 90s I worked with a lot of women who were sexually abused as children. Before the 90s, there was very little support for children in these situations Social attitudes were mostly that these matters should stay within the family and be dealt with there, but within most families where this occurred, denial, cover ups and shame kept the reality from being consciously realized by the child. There was no vocabulary, no frame of reference.....It was so painful....such deep injury,such profound betrayal, that the child buried it, filed it in their memory banks along with fantasy, dreams and imagination, blurred the edges of meaning in order to survive. The pioneers of the movement had a huge amount of societal prejudice to push through. The legal system was mostly made up of men who were loyal to Patriarchal conformity and so blamed the victims.......blamed little girls for their own ra*pes......suggesting they had been sexually provocative, etc. Then there was there was the "False Memory" controversy that raged for a few years, started by a prominent California Psychotherapist who insisted that children don't repress memories of childhood trauma and that they made it up to get attention..........That caught on for years...... Then boys started accusing priests and it all snowballed. The courts were inundated and changes were made.....Still, there are the statutes of limitations that really impact the sexual abuse crimes........The courts sometimes try to get around it by re-labelling, but there are other factors besides punishing the perpetrator. There is also taking care of the victim. In Canada, the statute of limitations affects the availability of Therapy for the survivors........That was the most common frustration for the victims. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse as well as adult r*pe victim sustain psychic injuries that profoundly affect their lives. Therapy is crucial and very expensive. The government assists victims of crimes with the cost of therapy.........but there is a time limitation......If the crime was committed before a certain date, victims are not eligible for assistance.........Really heartbreaking for people in crisis whose memories have surfaced and are wreaking havoc in their lives.
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In the 90s I worked with a lot of women who were sexually abused as children. Before the 90s, there was very little support for children in these situations Social attitudes were mostly that these matters should stay within the family and be dealt with there, but within most families where this occurred, denial, cover ups and shame kept the reality from being consciously realized by the child. There was no vocabulary, no frame of reference.....It was so painful....such deep injury,such profound betrayal, that the child buried it, filed it in their memory banks along with fantasy, dreams and imagination, blurred the edges of meaning in order to survive. The pioneers of the movement had a huge amount of societal prejudice to push through. The legal system was mostly made up of men who were loyal to Patriarchal conformity and so blamed the victims.......blamed little girls for their own ra*pes......suggesting they had been sexually provocative, etc. Then there was there was the "False Memory" controversy that raged for a few years, started by a prominent California Psychotherapist who insisted that children don't repress memories of childhood trauma and that they made it up to get attention..........That caught on for years...... Then boys started accusing priests and it all snowballed. The courts were inundated and changes were made.....Still, there are the statutes of limitations that really impact the sexual abuse crimes........The courts sometimes try to get around it by re-labelling, but there are other factors besides punishing the perpetrator. There is also taking care of the victim. In Canada, the statute of limitations affects the availability of Therapy for the survivors........That was the most common frustration for the victims. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse as well as adult r*pe victim sustain psychic injuries that profoundly affect their lives. Therapy is crucial and very expensive. The government assists victims of crimes with the cost of therapy.........but there is a time limitation......If the crime was committed before a certain date, victims are not eligible for assistance.........Really heartbreaking for people in crisis whose memories have surfaced and are wreaking havoc in their lives. Elaine Shuel
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Forgiveness is helpful to the perpetrators, but doesn't do much for the victims of the crimes.......especially s*xual crimes, since the perps have a psychological imperative to repeat the criminal behaviour.........In which case a statute of limitations aids and abets more crimes and more victims.
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Uh huh. Fossil 
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